Digital wellness refers to maintaining a healthy relationship with technology, including practices such as setting boundaries for device use, prioritizing face-to-face interactions, and engaging in physical exercise. In this post find resources available from The Digital Wellness Institute, including a free Digital Wellness Check Up and guide.
Digital wellness refers to the “practice of maintaining a healthy and balanced relationship with technology, particularly digital devices and online platforms. It involves being mindful of one’s technology usage and developing habits that promote physical and mental well-being while minimizing the potential negative effects of technology on one’s life.”
Examples of digital wellness practices include setting boundaries for device use, taking regular breaks from screens, prioritizing face-to-face interactions, engaging in physical exercise and outdoor activities, practicing mindfulness and meditation, and being intentional with social media and online content consumption.
The idea is that because technology is so heavily embedded into our lives, we stand to benefit by paying close attention to the relationship we have with technology. Just like we might pay attention to other aspects of our life (work, study, health, family) by prioritizing digital wellness, individuals can promote a healthier relationship with technology and minimize the potential negative effects on their mental and physical health.
Every cause needs a champion, and so The Digital Wellness Institute are a group promoting healthy technology practices for individuals and workplaces through free resources, paid courses and certification, keynotes, and consultation.
One of their initiatives is Digital Wellness Day, which in 2023 falls on the 5th May. I checked out their free resources and decided to do their Free Digital Wellness Check Up. It basically asked me a bunch of questions about my technology use. My profile wasn’t great with most categories (quantified self, digital citizenship, productivity, environment, communication, relationshps, mental helath and physical health) scoring in the 😐 range. Definitely room for improvement.
If you do the survey, you get access to a Digital Wellness Guide with a bunch of tips on how to develop a better relationship with technology. I am now providing that guide to you because that is just the kind of guy I am.
The guide doesn’t just provide tips. It also provides a Digital Wellness Glossary (I shall now use the word ‘technoference’), a working definition of Digital Wellness (i.e. what we should all aspire to achieving) and a fancy picture (see below). Jokes aside, it is helpful to realise that there are many ways we interact with technology and we have the capacity to optimise across all of them.
If you think your relationship with technology is more Miley Cyrus/Liam Hemsworth rather than Blake Lively/Ryan Reynolds, see if the guide has any suggestions you’d consider implementing.
